Administrative and Maintenance Tools - Commbull (Community Bulletin) 5.1a for vBulletin 4.01

This not the CommBull product itself. This is simply instructions for adapting it to work with vBulletin 4.x.

Download CommBull from: Commbull (Community Bulletin) 5.1a for vBulletin 3.8x

grandeur_69 has released his latest version of CommBull as a free add-on, indicating that he no longer has time to continue developing it. I am posting this here for the benefit of other vBulletin 4.x who don't want to lose the newsletter feature (grandeur_69 has approved this).

At https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....6&postcount=71 a member asks:

Hi, the version 5.1a work fine with vbulletin 4.0.1 ?

My response is posted at https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....5&postcount=72 and reproduced here...

I have the previous (commercial) version, 4.5f, which does run successfully via a cron job, running on 4.01. It required some modification of the installation instructions but it does work. I expect you should be able to get this version running as well, although as the coder noted the cron capability won't work.

1. Edit product-Commbull.xml and find the following line:

PHP Code:

        <dependency dependencytype="vbulletin" minversion="3.6.0" maxversion="3.8.99" /> 


Change to:

PHP Code:

        <dependency dependencytype="vbulletin" minversion="3.6.0" maxversion="4.99" /> 


2. Upload the files and import the product.

3. Now you need to do the template edits so that members can opt-in or opt-out of your newsletter. The current instructions are as follows:

4. Template modifications
--------------------------------------

Template: "Modify User Option" -> "modifyoptions"

After:

PHP Code:

                    <tr>
                        <td><label for="cb_adminemail"><input type="checkbox" name="options[adminemail]" value="1" id="cb_adminemail" $checked[adminemail] />$vbphrase[receive_email_from_bulletin_board_staff]</label><input type="hidden" name="set_options[adminemail]" value="1" /></td>
                    </tr> 


Add:

PHP Code:

                    <tr>
                        <td><label for="commbull"><input type="checkbox" name="commbull" value="1" id="commbull" $checked[receivebulletin] />$vbphrase[receive_email_from_commbull]</label><input type="hidden" name="set_options[receivebulletin]" value="1" /></td>
                    </tr>
                    <tr>
                        <td><br />$vbphrase[newsletterformat]<br /><label for="commbull_type"><input type="checkbox" name="commbull_type" value="1" id="commbull_type" $checked[receivebulletin_type] />$vbphrase[type_email_from_commbull]</label>
<input type="hidden" name="set_options[receivebulletin_type]" value="1" /></td>
                    </tr> 


Now, obviously this won't work in 4.x. These need to be modified as follows:

1. Edit Template: "Modify User Option" -> "modifyoptions"

FIND:

PHP Code:

<vb:if condition="$show['friend_email_request']">
                    <li>
                        <label for="cb_receivefriendemailrequest"><input type="checkbox" name="options[receivefriendemailrequest]" value="1" id="cb_receivefriendemailrequest" tabindex="1" {vb:raw checked.receivefriendemailrequest} /> {vb:rawphrase receive_friendship_req_email}</label>
                        <input type="hidden" name="set_options[receivefriendemailrequest]" value="1" />
                    </li>
                </vb:if> 


ADD AFTER:

PHP Code:

<vb:if condition="$show['receiveemail']">
<li>
    <label for="commbull"><input type="checkbox" name="commbull" value="1" id="commbull" tabindex="1" {vb:raw checked.receivebulletin} />{vb:rawphrase receive_email_from_commbull}</label>
    <input type="hidden" name="set_options[receivebulletin]" value="1" />
</li>
</vb:if> 


That first part (above) is the option to receive or not receive the newsletters.

Next would be the option for HTML or plain text emails, which should be:

PHP Code:

<vb:if condition="$show['receiveemail']">
<li>
    <label for="commbull_type"><input type="checkbox" name="commbull_type" value="1" id="commbull_type" tabindex="1" {vb:raw checked.receivebulletin_type} />{vb:rawphrase type_email_from_commbull}</label>
    <input type="hidden" name="set_options[receivebulletin_type]" value="1" />
</li>
</vb:if> 


Update:

This now works. I had a ( instead of a { on the previous code. Thanks to grandeur_69 for pointing this out!

Notes:

1. The product is not mine so I can't offer any support for CommBull itself. However, I have been using the paid versions of this mod for some time and I'm happy to offer what support I can for making the changes necessary to get it running on 4.x.
   
   
2. I have been in communication with grandeur_69. He has indicated that he has no objections to this thread and that as he gets time he will be trying to develop this add-on further as a free product.

Update July 12, 2010: Product XML file provided by grandeur_69 for vBulletin 4.x.

NOTE:

1. If you have already done the manual edits, do NOT use the XML file. And if you import the XML file, you should not need to do the manual edits.
   
2. Some people are encountering problems using the XML file. If you are one of them, uninstall the product and use the manual edits. Those seem to work just fine.

Update July 14, 2010: Error in XML file corrected.

[Nelson58]

I wanted to see for myself if it worked. So I installed 5.1a on my 4.2 pl2 Vbulletin site. Made the changes indicated above. It shows that it is emailing the newsletters, but it doesn't email anything. I changed the crom setting in the email options in admincp and got the same result. Does not work with 4.2 pl2.

Nelson

[Calystos]

I've not had any luck with commbull working on 4.2 either. Which is a major shame as it was awesome. And a lot better to look at and configure/etc, than some of the others I've tried.

Anyone managed to figure out why its stopped working? I've not had the time to look into it myself yet.

[djbaxter]

If you still have one of the older versions (paid versions) try that. Version 5.1 never really worked properly for me but 4.5f is still going strong, week after week, now on 4.2.0 PL2.

Otherwise, please give me details about your settings and I'll try to figure it out.

One recommendation to try is this:

AdminCP >> Settings >> Email Options

Use Mailqueue System = No

Use Cron Based Sending = No

Number of Emails to Send Per Batch = 1000 (tweak this if it creates problems on your server)

E-Mail Send Delay = None (tweak this if it creates problems on your server)

Encode as UTF-8 = No

SMTP Email = No

[Calystos]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

If you still have one of the older versions (paid versions) try that. Version 5.1 never really worked properly for me but 4.5f is still going strong, week after week, now on 4.2.0 PL2.

Otherwise, please give me details about your settings and I'll try to figure it out.

One recommendation to try is this:

AdminCP >> Settings >> Email Options

Use Mailqueue System = No

Use Cron Based Sending = No

Number of Emails to Send Per Batch = 1000 (tweak this if it creates problems on your server)

E-Mail Send Delay = None (tweak this if it creates problems on your server)

Encode as UTF-8 = No

SMTP Email = No

Thanks, will check those above suggestions and see if that helps. If not will drop down to that 4.5f version.

Our commbull settings are pretty much default, but I have noticed one bug in the 5.1 version that if you try to enable it to post a copy of the newsletter to a forum it comes up with a mysql error of invalid sql but no actual info as if the sql query is blank or something.

Here are the above listed settings that we (currently) have set and have been set for as long as I can recall and used to work with pre-4.2 vbulletin.

Use Mailqueue System = Yes, with locking
Use Cron Based Sending = Yes
Number of Emails to Send Per Batch = 100
E-Mail Send Delay = None
Encode as UTF-8 = Yes
SMTP Email = No

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by Calystos

Thanks, will check those above suggestions and see if that helps. If not will drop down to that 4.5f version.

Our commbull settings are pretty much default, but I have noticed one bug in the 5.1 version that if you try to enable it to post a copy of the newsletter to a forum it comes up with a mysql error of invalid sql but no actual info as if the sql query is blank or something.

I've never tried to use that feature.

Originally Posted by Calystos

Here are the above listed settings that we (currently) have set and have been set for as long as I can recall and used to work with pre-4.2 vbulletin.

Use Mailqueue System = Yes, with locking
Use Cron Based Sending = Yes
Number of Emails to Send Per Batch = 100
E-Mail Send Delay = None
Encode as UTF-8 = Yes
SMTP Email = No

I had problems getting cron-based sending to work correctly and eventually juist disabled it. On my server, everything functions well with it turned off and erratically with it turned on.

[Calystos]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

I've never tried to use that feature.
I had problems getting cron-based sending to work correctly and eventually juist disabled it. On my server, everything functions well with it turned off and erratically with it turned on.

Yeah, that feature appears to be buggy. Shame, thought would be handy for an archive of the sent messages.

Hmm, seems it was cron-based sending to blame. Turned it off and it posted fine. Though the post it actually posted is like info from July and not the most current info, eg it doesn't display the most recent thread/posts but the ones from way back in July when it stopped working, lol. Though it also appears to have sent a load of other messages too. Again, all from July. So perhaps the vbulletin cron post sending was messed up. Am going to check the vb bugs list an forums to see if theres any info on a fix for that. As the cron based sending system woulda been handy.

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by Calystos

Yeah, that feature appears to be buggy. Shame, thought would be handy for an archive of the sent messages.

Hmm, seems it was cron-based sending to blame. Turned it off and it posted fine. Though the post it actually posted is like info from July and not the most current info, eg it doesn't display the most recent thread/posts but the ones from way back in July when it stopped working, lol. Though it also appears to have sent a load of other messages too. Again, all from July. So perhaps the vbulletin cron post sending was messed up. Am going to check the vb bugs list an forums to see if theres any info on a fix for that. As the cron based sending system woulda been handy.

You may have a rather large mail queue by now if you've had cron-based emailing on for a while. If you have a VPS or dedicated server, you can flush this through WHM. Otherwise, ask your host to have a look at the queue and remove old emails.

[Calystos]

Yeah, its on a dedicated server. And appears to have caught up now. I wonder if its actually that to have been the cause. EG a messed up mailqueue from back then, maybe a host server issue or a crashed/bugged daemon. *shrugs*

Will re-enable the cron and run a test later to see if it works again. And will monitor the mail queues closely from now on and see.

[djbaxter]

Honestly, I wouldn't bother. I'm on a dedicated server too and all cron mail sending did was slow everything down. Everything works just fine without it.

Those with super-large mailing lists and or shared hosting with limits on emails per hour may need it. But since you can adjust those settings yourself, seriously just bypass it.

[SilverBoy]

It is working with me, but the most read threads or most replied threads blocks always grab data from the day one of the forum, and the date that we entered to select only threads starting from it don't work any more !!
for example if I select the date as 1 September, it displays threads written in 2003 and the last reply was in 2006 !!
How I can solve this???